This is more of a US oriented topic, but I am sure there are some parallels with other western countries.

I think I will start this topic off with a little something special and perhaps vaguely disturbing: a dream.

My inspiration for creating this topic was having a strange dream where I was somehow thrown back in time to the early 1960's, and I was trying to explain to a group of Americans what the future would look like (I remember trying to explain 9/11, and the fall of communism, for example). Somewhere along the way, I got to talking about the effects of the civil rights movement in the long term.

It occurred to me, that trying to explain to these fictitious people that maybe they should approach that idea with a degree of caution undermines the conventional wisdom. I think I should note now that I do not support how white people treated blacks in America before 1970 or so.

I think my question to you all is, was the civil rights movement in America (or any nation) really worth it?

I personally think it did much more harm than good in the long run. In the long run black nationalism or the Russian solution (a bunch of different people having citizenship in a federation with their own parts) would be a much better way to give black people rights and dignity. Realistically, with many American urban centers being reduced to crime infested warzones, and with the arrival of new tensions (Asian vs Black, Hispanic vs Black, African Black vs Native Black, and so on) makes me think this grand image of some super egalitarian future is totally destined to fail

I think in this case, maybe the conventional wisdom needs undermining.